The best and worst of Champions League draw for City
By James Fudge
Any runners-up in Europe’s big leagues will be featuring in this pot and more likely to be the favourite to advance along with their counterparts from Pot One.
Due to the rules, Manchester United and Tottenham are excluded from facing Manchester City, leaving six teams City should all beat on paper.
Borussia Dortmund, Napoli and Roma are the teams left with the strongest squads. As seen last year, Roma made it to the semi-finals becoming a dangerous team, a surprise package, by beating Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk along the way.
They have made significant improvements to their squad over the summer using the money from Alisson, Kevin Strootman and Radja Nainggolan to invest in a number of promising youngsters and high-profile stars.
Justin Kluivert and Ante Coric add to the experience of Javier Pastore and Steven Nzonzi signings. Former City stars Edin Dzeko and Aleksandar Kolarov add to a good squad that Eusebio Di Francesco possesses.
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Further southwards towards the Amalfi Coast lies Napoli, buoyed by the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti. The possibility of the Italian runners-up will be more of an interesting fixture than in last season’s group stage.
Relationship between the clubs had deteriorated over the summer due to the negotiations over the transfer of Jorginho. Most of the frustration came down to Aurelio De Laurentiis, who seemed to delay the transfer after City improved each time they went to the discussion table.
Ending with the player choosing Chelsea due to the Maurizio Sarri connections.
Borussia Dortmund will be a threat as always and the return of Jadon Sancho will be an exciting prospect as he supplies Marco Reus and new loan signing Paco Alcacer. Westfalenstadion is an intimidating stadium as ever for any champion and will prove a tough test.
Making up the rest of pot is Portuguese giants Benfica, Porto and one City fans will want to avoid is a trip to Shakhtar Donetsk to experience the Ukrainian winter.